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The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) today (September 28) released the Hong Kong insurance business statistics for 2011 with reference to the audited returns and actuarial information submitted by insurers.
In 2011, total gross premiums of the Hong Kong insurance industry increased by 14 per cent to $233.7 billion, representing about 12.3 per cent of Hong Kong's gross domestic product, compared with 11.8 per cent in 2010.
General insurance business recorded increases in gross and net premiums of 12.2 per cent to $34.8 billion and 9.3 per cent to $23.8 billion respectively in 2011 when compared with 2010. The overall retention ratio decreased slightly from 70 per cent to 68.2 per cent.
Business growth in 2011 was mainly contributed to by Property Damage business, the gross premiums of which surged by 20.5 per cent from $6.6 billion in 2010 to $8 billion in 2011. Accident and Health business also recorded a significant growth of 11.5 per cent from $8.5 billion to $9.4 billion due to continuous expansion in Medical business. General Liability business (comprising Employees' Compensation business) posted an upturn in gross premiums of 10.2 per cent from $7.1 billion in 2010 to $7.8 billion in 2011. Motor Vehicle business also recorded an increase in gross premiums of 11.4 per cent from $3.2 billion to $3.5 billion, attributable primarily to the increase in the number of vehicles covered.
Claims experience of general insurance business deteriorated slightly in 2011 with a net claims incurred ratio of 55 per cent in 2011, compared to 53.6 per cent in 2010. Nevertheless, most major lines of business continued to record an underwriting profit except for Ships business and Proportional Treaty business, which reported an underwriting loss of $92 million and $30 million respectively.
Pecuniary Loss business reported an underwriting profit of $713 million and continued to be the largest contributor in 2011. Property Damage business and Accident and Health business maintained their profit of $630 million and $562 million respectively. As regards the underwriting performance for two major classes of compulsory business, the underwriting loss for direct Employees' Compensation business contracted from $324 million to $260 million and the underwriting profit for direct Motor Vehicle business shrank from $105 million to $30 million.
For long term insurance business, office premiums of new Individual Life business increased significantly by 20.6 per cent to $69.9 billion in 2011 when compared with 2010. Both Individual Life (Non-Linked) and Individual Life (Linked) business recorded premium growth, with the former increasing by 28.7 per cent to $48.9 billion and the latter increasing by 5 per cent to $20.9 billion in terms of new office premiums. The corresponding total number of new policies increased by 6.4 per cent to 1,079,690.
In respect of in-force long term business, total office premiums increased 14.4 per cent from $173.9 billion in 2010 to $198.9 billion in 2011. Individual Life category remained the dominant line of business, making up $186.7 billion or 93.9 per cent of the total business. The corresponding number of policies in 2011 stood at 9.6 million, carrying net liabilities of $826.4 billion.
Yearly contributions to Retirement Scheme contracts administered by insurers decreased by 18.9 per cent to $8.1 billion. At the end of 2011, there were 50,769 Retirement Scheme contracts carrying net liabilities of $96.2 billion.
In-force office premiums of Group Life business increased by 17.8 per cent to $1.8 billion, whereas the number of policies increased by 5.1 per cent to 17,090 and net liabilities increased by 10.7 per cent to $731.7 million.
In-force office premiums of Annuity and other businesses (comprising mainly Permanent Health business) rose by 7.7 per cent to reach $2.3 billion, accounting for 1.1 per cent of the total in respect of long term insurance business.
Detailed statistics, including industry aggregates and those of individual insurers, are available from the website of the OCI at www.oci.gov.hk.
Ends/Friday, September 28, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:00
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